Funeral rituals of the tho people of Vietnam: a comparative analysis

This article discusses the funeral rites of the Tho people of Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam as as one of the rituals of transition, which comprises various aspects of Tho social relations and worldview. Study of the ritual practice of small ethnic groups is actual due to the threat of their extinction, the growing influence of dominant cultures, and either the loss or transformation of traditional material and spiritual values because of rapid modernization. The study is novel for its collection of field materials and investigation of unexplored Tho people culture. This novelty is also introduced through the interdisciplinary nature of the research, when funeral rites are explored from the point of view of ethnology, sociology, cultural studies and semiotics. The study has used methods of structural and comparative analysis, namely comparing the components of the Tho people funeral rituals with those of of the neighboring Kinh, Muong and Thai. Such an approach has revealed differences and similarities in the ritual practice of the ethnic groups under consideration, defined mutual influences, and therefore drawn conclusions about the specifics of their world perception, and finally revealed the universals connected with dichotomous concepts of life and death.

Tho people, Vietnam, funeral ritual, rituals of transition, comparative analysis, ethnoso-ciolinguistics